


The Long Game

by Sarcasticles



Category: One Piece
Genre: AU, Gen, One Shot, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 11:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14567850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarcasticles/pseuds/Sarcasticles
Summary: A chance meeting on a burning island can change the course of history





	The Long Game

It was snowing when Tsuru stepped onto the island.

It wasn’t the picturesque wonderland found in storybooks, where houses appeared to be dusted with powdered sugar and the ground glistened like icy diamonds. No, this was a heavy, wet snow that turned instantly into a frozen slush that somehow managed to leak into even the most weather-proofed boots. It was the miserable cold and wet of early February, after winter had overstayed its welcome and spring wasn’t due for another six weeks.

It was also Nico Robin’s ninth birthday, a most unlikely occasion that Tsuru felt obligated to acknowledge despite the unpleasant conditions. She turned to her second in command.

“I’ve business to attend to. Get the provisions you need and wait for my return. We leave tomorrow morning with the tide.”

Her second nodded sharply, unasked questions in her eyes. Tsuru was content to let her question. She couldn’t pretend what she was doing wasn’t treason, and though she trusted her crew with her life Tsuru wasn’t about to get them involved with this dark business, discretion being the better part of wisdom and valor alike.

Tsuru pulled the hood of her oiled cloak over her head and began walking down the streets with the slumped posture of an old woman. If people bothered to look they would have seen her military boots— meticulously shined and kept pristinely clean even in the elements—or the wary expression that marked her as something more than a local running errands in the snow and wondered what a stranger was doing in their midst.

But people didn’t look. They saw what they expected to see and nothing more, and it was this fact that let Tsuru arrive to the large manor house at the edge of town unnoticed.

* * *

There had been some debate on who would replace Vice Admiral Saul during the Buster Call of Ohara. Known worldwide as the Hero of the Marines, Garp was a popular choice, but the mission was time-sensitive and he had gone out to take care of some personal matters in the East Blue. Privately both Sengoku and Tsuru knew he would never agree to such an attack, and were grateful that they were saved from explaining that to superiors who might hold such dangerous thinking coming from the Line of D as treason.

Tsuru herself had barely made it to the meeting after another wild-goose chase involving Donquixote Doflamingo. Only luck and delays from the untimely escape of Nico Olvia allowed her to make it back from the North Blue in time. Perhaps it was traveling thousands of miles after yet another fruitless attempt at the notorious rookie, but she was in no mood for humoring stupidity.

“No, absolutely not,” she said flatly.

Vice Admiral Kuzan slammed his hands against the board-room table. “I am more than capable of seeing this mission through!”

“Your friendship with the ex-Vice Admiral has clouded your thinking,” Tsuru said. “Your eagerness is admirable, but I’m not convinced that you can separate your feelings from what needs to be done.”

“I fail to see the conflict,” Vice Admiral Sakazuki said. He alone sat perfectly at ease despite the growing tensions, his hat low over his eyes and arms folded lazily across his chest. “If Kuzan wants to help ensure Justice is served, then let him. There’s no doubting his strength.”

“Thank you!”

Sengoku shifted uneasily in his seat. No doubt he was thinking about the power Vice Admiral Kuzan’s Devil Fruit would bring to the field. It was a little-known fact that Sengoku could, in fact, be swayed by sentimentality. There was something poetic about the deserter being replaced in the battlefield by his best friend and former comrade-in-arms. Luckily for them all, Tsuru didn’t care much for poetry.

“It’s not your strength or loyalty that I question,” Tsuru said, rubbing her forehead wearily, “but because of your bond, Saul’s betrayal cuts _you_ most of all. Can you look me in the eye and say that won’t affect your judgement?”

Kuzan couldn’t, and the matter was quickly settled. Tsuru would take over Saul’s command on the World Government’s attack against the Oharan scholars.

* * *

“Bishop to D3.”

Tsuru raised an eyebrow a fraction of an inch, but Nico Robin was too focused on the board notice. She had grown since Tsuru’s last visit, two inches at least, and had gained enough weight that the word “scrawny” no longer entered Tsuru’s mind at the sight of her. Physically, at least, she was a perfectly healthy nine year old child.

Mentally, Tsuru wasn’t so sure.

Robin bit her lip as she moved her piece, ignoring the pawn Tsuru had left as bait to protect her queen. It was an unexpected move from a girl who was prone to relentlessly pushing forward regardless of consequence. She wasn’t unlike her Oharan teachers in that regard.

Wordlessly Tsuru shifted her rook. If Robin played well she had three turns before Tsuru put her into checkmate. It seemed like she had been practicing.

* * *

Tsuru didn’t approve of the Buster Call against Ohara, and she made sure the higher-ups knew it. If the archeologists had broken the law, execute them. If the Tree of Knowledge was too great a risk, shut it down and turn its works over to the World Government. The marines could have set up a presence on the island, Cipher Pol could have infiltrated the great library, they could have set the damn tree on fire for all she cared. There were dozens of solutions that didn’t involve the wholescale destruction of an entire island.

Ohara was nothing more than a warning to the rest of the world, a blazing example of what the Government would do to anyone who stepped out of line. What they didn’t seem to understand was that any short-term benefit was outweighed by the long-term resentment such drastic measures would breed. Resentment that could fan the flames of rebellion that were already beginning to stir in the East.

The decision wasn’t hers, but if the World Government _was_ going to launch a Buster Call, Tsuru was going to make sure they got it right.

* * *

Chess was one of many games Tsuru played. Go, shogi, and tafl had been her first teachers in strategy and logic, and she had always been of the mind that you could learn more about someone during an afternoon of leisure than in an interrogation room. Robin proved to be a quick, if reluctant student, providing Tsuru valuable insight into the young Oharan.

There was no doubting her intelligence. Tsuru never had to say things more than once for her to remember, but knowing and understanding were two different things. Robin stuck rigidly to proven strategies and theorems undoubtedly garnered from Tsuru’s own library without ever adjusting with the flow of the game. She was singleminded and focused to a fault, often missing the forest through the trees. She knew the rules, but not how to work them in her favor.

It was little wonder that the archeologists were able to mold her into their image. The fact that Tsuru had been able to get her to play with her at all after the disastrous events on Ohara proved that Robin was, if nothing else, eager to please.

They never spoke about the past during these sessions, but Tsuru often wondered what drove her to them. The girl she smuggled off of the burning island had been underfed and dressed in ill-fitting clothes, possessing a Devil Fruit at an age when most didn’t realize they were more than just a fairy tale. Official records showed that Robin passed her final exams to become a licensed archeologist with a perfect score, and all indications led to the conclusion that she’d taught herself to read a dead and forbidden language by her eighth birthday.

Tsuru had never met Nico Olvia, but Jaguar D Saul had and he ended up deserting the marines because of it. After meeting her daughter Tsuru was beginning to think she understood why.

* * *

Jaguar D Saul died to protect the girl, and Vice Admiral Sakazuki ensured he did so in vain. Tsuru stared dispassionately at the terrified visage of Nico Robin, the coat of her white jacket flapping in the wind as she raised her arm. Robin held her hands up defensively, tried to run and stumbled. Tear tracks glittered from the glow of the red-hot fire behind them, and the girl’s pitiful attacks to use her Devil Fruit were easily batted away.

There was nothing left to be said, so Tsuru remained silent as she reached for her power. By necessity the law was a hard, inflexible thing, and under it the girl was guilty. The most Tsuru could do was to send her quickly to the afterlife, with some of her sins cleansed from her soul.

Nico Robin didn’t even try to avoid the attack. She curled into a ball as the effect of Tsuru’s Devil Fruit washed over her, whimpering as the dirt and grime was instantly cleaned from her skin and dress.

To Tsuru’s surprise, she didn’t scream and she certainly didn’t die. It took them both several seconds to realize the attack had done nothing but give the girl a glorified bath. When she _did_ realize, Nico Robin scrambled to her feet and ran.

The girl was quick, but Tsuru was quicker. She grabbed Nico Robin by the back of the dress and pressed a gun under her chin. The girl went deathly still save for the heavy, ragged breaths of a child about ready to lose control.

Why hadn’t it worked? Tsuru had mastered her Devil Fruit long ago, and the cleansing attack had at least some effect on even the most law-abiding citizen. No one was entirely innocent, least of all the archeologists of Ohara.

Or so Tsuru thought.

In one swift motion Tsuru holstered her gun and shackled sea-stone cuffs around the girl’s slender wrists. She didn’t hurt Nico Robin, but neither did she give her another opportunity to run as she marched her to the awaiting marine ship. The girl squirmed under Tsuru’s grip and cried, “My mom! She’s still on the island!”

“Nico Oliva is dead, or soon will be,” Tsuru said, not unkindly. “Unless you want to join her you will come with me.”

* * *

“Why did you save my life?”

Tsuru looked up from the meal they were sharing in uncomfortable silence. Or to be more accurate, the meal Tsuru was eating while Nico Robin stared at her plate. She had expected this question months ago, but still sighed wearily.

“Because you had done nothing wrong.”

“You put a gun to my head,” Robin said.

“A bluff to keep you from resisting,” Tsuru said dismissively.

Robin frowned, clenching her hands into fists. It was a moment before she'd gathered herself enough to speak. “You killed Saul and tried to kill me. Now you’re trying to teach me chess. What are you trying to do to me?”

Slowly Tsuru cut her meat and took a bite, methodically chewing while she pondered how to answer. Why had she spared the Demon Child? Why had she faked the girl’s death and spirited her away to this gilded cage? Tsuru’s life was forfeit if discovered, and possibly the lives of her subordinates. Absolute Justice saw little distinction between those who broke the law and those who allowed it to be broken.

“The archeologists of Ohara did possess the knowledge to destroy the world, of that there is no question,” Tsuru said. “The World Government had warned them to leave well enough alone—your mother included. They chose their own fate.”

Robin’s face fell. “Not all of Ohara were archeologists. I’ve seen your library, I know you treasure knowledge just like Professor Clover did. You didn’t have to…to kill them all.”

“I know it’s difficult,” Tsuru said, “but I want you to think of the larger picture here. Sometimes it is best to lose the battle to win the war. Sacrifices must be made to uphold the law.”

“The people of Ohara aren’t chess pieces!” Robin cried, tears streaking down her face.

“No, no they’re not. And sometimes the law is wrong.” Tsuru laced her fingers in front of her face and rested her chin on her hands. “ _That’s_ why I saved you. The World Government isn’t the only ones capable of playing the long game.”

* * *

It was early yet, but already the important pieces were starting to emerge: an exiled noble Sengoku picked up in the North Blue, the baby Garp had hidden the East, a girl who studied chess in a lonely mansion in the West.

Properly nurtured they could start a new era of their own, where blood meant nothing compared to the actions one took. They could lead by example, boldly upsetting the current order. Perhaps a world existed where Tsuru didn’t have to wrestle between her Clean Justice and the law she’d sworn to uphold. 

Or perhaps not. Tsuru held no illusions about herself, and life was the most difficult game of all, unpredictable to even her strategic genius. One thing was certain, by saving Nico Robin she had committed to playing with the highest stakes. All she could do now was let the chips fall as they may.

**Author's Note:**

> So here's a fun little AU idea I've had rattling around in my head for a while now but no real desire to continue. You have to admit, Robin would be an amazing protegee for a strategist like Tsuru, and I kind of like the idea of Rosinante, Robin, and Ace becoming a new trio to replace Sengoku, Tsuru, and Garp even though there's a bit of an age difference in there.


End file.
